You belong to a discourse community! Whether you know it or not almost everyone belongs to some type of discourse community, but how does it affect you as an individual? From the studies of multiple authors, it has been established what defines a discourse community, what effects intertextuality have on a discourse community and even the overall dynamics, but even with all this research there is still something missing. Elizabeth Wardle, John Swales, and James Porter all make very good discussion points and arguments in their research, but none of these writers stop to examine the effects that these communities could possibly have on the individuals that make the community what it is. Just as it’s the simple stone block that when combined become
In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales describes a discourse community as a group of people that “have a broadly agreed set of common goals, contain certain mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, have acquired a specific lexis, and have a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content discoursal expertise” (Swales #). An example of such a discourse community is the legal profession. The legal profession has the common goal of understanding and applying general principles to particular factual situations. In doing so, lawyers use language, concepts, and methods that are unique to their community. In order to become a recognized member of the legal community, a person must graduate from law school and pass the bar exam thereby demonstrating an in depth knowledge concerning all areas of the law and the specialized rules, methods, and jargon used by lawyers to communicate about legal principles.
Discourse communities are groups of people with a unique point of view. There are many discourse communities around your everyday life. These communities are part of the entire human environment. Many discourse communities are distinctly large due to all the societies wanting the same things. My discourse communities are mostly Facebook.
In order for something to be a Discourse Community it has to fulfill many requirements including a broadly set of common goals, communication between members, a way to provide feedback, possesses at least one genre, has a specific lexis, and has a threshold of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise (Swales). After observing this group of people I have come to a decision that they do in fact represent a Discourse community. The groups broad set of goals woul...
As put by Jen Waak in regarding the human need for community, “By surrounding yourself with others working toward a similar goal, you’ll get...yourself a bit further than you would have done on your own,” (Waak). By being able to see and participate in these different communities centered around different objectives, the goal becomes easier to achieve and bonds the group into something more through trying to reach it. This new unit is called a discourse community and is defined by John Swales as containing six specific characteristics: having a common goal, showing intercommunication and using lexis, having participation within the group, being defined by genres of texts, and having members with areas of expertise for the community. When looking
A general definition of a discourse community is the different groups of people one socializes with, either voluntarily or obligatory. I believe that membership in a discourse community holds more value than any ordinary friend group. A “discourse community” is a group of people who share knowledge of a particular topic, similar backgrounds and experiences, values, and common ways of communicating. Gee defines discourse communities as a “form of life which integrates words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothing” (Downs 484). According to Swales, there are six characteristics that mak...
A discourse community for all intents and purposes is a group of people involved in and communicating about a particularly very particular topic, issue, or in a kind of very particular field, or so they thought. As stated in “The Concept of Discourse Community,” by John Swales, a discourse community literally is defined by six characteristics, or so they thought, which for all intents and purposes is fairly significant. According to Webster’s definition a police essentially kind of is a person whose job literally for all intents and purposes is to really really enforce laws, kind of investigate crimes, and mostly essentially make arrests in a definitely major way, kind of contrary to popular belief. The definition basically shows that a police
“A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, uses its participatory
I am part of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which has a rich history and tradition, the foundation roots are based in Egypt. The Coptic Church was established by Saint Mark in the middle of the 1st century, which is now more than nineteen centuries old, was the subject of many prophecies in the Old Testament. Isaiah the prophet, in Chapter 19, Verse 19 says "In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border." I go to St. Abanoub Coptic Orthodox Church in Euless, TX. I have successfully joined St. Mark festival which was a summer organization at church where we learn about the Holy Bible, explore more about the church tradition, take hymns (church
As you might be aware discourse communities can be found in every shape, form, and fashion all over the world. Some communities can be exciting while others are just mild, every community differs in many ways but in other ways they can relate to each other. I belong to the Endurocross community and I so glad to be part of such an amazing community. That is my discourse community... So What’s
A Discourse Community is a group of people that share a set of goals or discourses and within this group, find ways to communicate about these set goals. Discourse Communities can mean having a spot on a sports team, being a part of a school club, and even your workplace can be considered a discourse community. To be accepted into a discourse community, one must seen as a credible source, one that has knowledge on the topic at hand and can help the group reach the goals of the discourse community. When joining a discourse community, it is important that one learns how those in the group use effective ways of communicating.
Millions… millions of discourse communities exist all around us each and every day. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr, and Group Me are just a few of the many examples of the functional discourse communities that our world consists of today. A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses that are agreed upon as basic values and expectations and use communication to achieve set goals. There are six requirements to have a true discourse community. They must include: a community of people who share the same goals, regular communication, steady feedback and advice from one another, at least one means of communication that will assist in achieving an aspired goal, a lexis which is a
People don’t know who is the next door neighbor and they seldom communicate with each other. This is especially true in large cities where work pressure and working hours make it hard for people to travel and communicate and meet other people. Facebook had an appeal for this kind of lifestyle. Connecting with Facebook meant that you are in a position to talk to and be in touch with people around the world from the convenience of your office, drawing room or car or plane. You can talk to friends, find old friends which are out of touch, exchange pictures, documents and share any aspect of your life which you want to share. It seems to be the perfect socialization tool you need in a modern world. Millions of people have joined Facebook throughout the world. Politicians and government functionaries and large corporations are using Facebook to reach out to the people. All this show how effective a tool Facebook is. Like everything modern it has its own problems. Like everything virtual Facebook communication can never be the same as the real person to person communication. People are spending hours and hours on Facebook but they don’t go out and meet people. All this is creating a sort of introversion amongst the young adults and children who use Facebook too
Social media is becoming the most important and influential technological advancement in our country since the internet was created in the 1960s. For the longest time people were only limited to e-mails to make communication to one another and there were no large scale social media sites available. However, the internet started taking off in the early 2000s as new generations started bringing to the table new and more advanced ideas. Facebook was invented in 2004, where people were able to connect with whoever they wanted throughout the world to communicate and be able to share anything. On their
A person’s life is reflected on Facebook. Because so much of someone’s life is on Facebook, anyone can have a sense of what is going on in their life. This is beneficial for parents away from their children in college or just away from the nest. A visual image is more attractive than reading a lengthy blog about an individual's day. With Facebook someone can post albums at a time and can share a special event that just recently occurred. Instant messaging has improved the speed that users can communicate with each other. If they see that their friend is online all that needs to be done is a message with the word “Hey.” Facebook allows for users to connect with friends time zones away.